Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for stainless steel fabricators.
A checklist built from how stainless steel fabricators work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Quotes with finish and polish hours
- Grade and heat tracking
- Certificate pack builder
- Forming, weld and polish stages
- Pickling and passivation record
- Hygienic work checks
- Site assembly and dispatch
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For estimators
- For welders and polishers
- For stores
- For quality staff
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Jobs by stage and promised date
- Sheet and tube stock by grade, thickness and heat
- Polish and grinding hours against quote
- Parts out for pickling or passivation
- Certificate packs complete and incomplete
- Quoted against actual cost for each vessel or table
- Balances by customer, oldest invoice first
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Accounting export
- Barcode labels
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- How are grade 304 and grade 316 kept apart?
- What goes into the certificate pack?
- Can finish be recorded for each side of a part?
- How is polishing time captured?
- Can parts sent for pickling be tracked?
- Does it replace a quality manual?
- Can long tanks built in sections be handled?
- Can customers and open orders be loaded?
- How does pricing work?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- The grade on the job is a guess
- Certificates are not tied to parts
- Finish standards are verbal
- Quotes under count the polishing
- Pickling and passivation are untracked
Prefer to talk it through? See the stainless steel fabricators page.